PROGRAM NOTES

This poem is full of the eagerness and joy we feel when a long, cold winter
is over and the spring is bursting with the possibility of new life, new growth,
and love. It is an invitation, one person enticing another with the promise of
sunshine, flowers, and the sound of songbirds. The piano provides an energetic,
active rhythmic drive with an excited heartbeat and the flowing of water from
the melting snow. The singers open with a sudden call for the object of their
affection to throw off the winter blues and come away with them, to share the
beauty that they feel returning. Then, they try a somewhat gentler, more
enticing approach, their music describing the sounds of the birds and the
amazing smell of the flowers that are all in blossom. We end with a reminder
of the opening, and hear them go off into the distance to experience the spring.

Though this piece was written in memory of someone who is gone, it is not sad
music. There are many phases of loss, and many ways that loss affects us. This
piece is about happy memories, with gratitude for love given and received.

RISE UP, MY LOVE, MY FAIR ONE

Rise up, my love, my fair one,
and come away;
for lo, the winter is past,
the rain is over and gone.
The flowers appear on the earth;
the time of the singing of birds has come,
and the voice of the turtledove
is heard in our land.
The fig tree ripens her green figs,
and the vines are in blossom;
they give forth fragrance.
Rise up, my love, my fair one,
and come away.

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